Champions! Coe-Brown girls capture D-II crown

HOOKSETT — Kianna Daudelin used her right arm to pitch the Coe-Brown Northwood Academy softball team into position to win the Division II championship, then relied on her legs to finish the job.

The junior legged out a triple leading off the bottom of seventh inning of a tie game and scampered home two batters later on a sacrifice fly by Holly Donohue to give the top-seeded Bears a 6-5 win Saturday over No. 7 John Stark at Southern New Hampshire University.

“I knew we were going to be able pull it off today,” said senior co-captain Shannon Burke, one of two seniors on the squad. “I have so much confidence in everybody. I’m just so happy to go out my senior year with a championship.”

After sliding safely across home plate, Daudelin was buried under a avalanche of teammates, who were celebrating the program’s second state title in five years.

John Stark, with nothing to lose at that point, tried to appeal the play in case Daudelin left third early. But when the umpires ruled she tagged up, the celebration began anew.

“They’re very resilient,” Coe-Brown coach Tim Tenasco said of his players. “There’s no quit in them.”

It was Coe-Brown’s second walk-off win in four days. The Bears (18-2) scored a run in the bottom of the seventh to snap a 1-all tie and edge Pembroke Academy in the semifinals on Wednesday.

“We’re a comeback team,” Burke said. “We’re going to fight to the end. We put so much work in we weren’t going down easily this year. We were going to battle until we couldn’t anymore.”

On the mound Daudelin struck out six and walked two Saturday, and allowed only one earned run.

“She’s been our rock in the circle all year long,” Tenasco said.

The Bears trailed at some point in the semis and the final. Down 3-2 on Saturday, Coe-Brown went ahead with three runs in the bottom of the fifth.

The first two came on back-to-back home runs by Amanda Riley and Daudelin, and the third came on an RBI single by Caitlin Foley that scored Donohue, who doubled with two outs.

“I knew as a team we could do it because this is what we practiced for all year,” Riley said. “Those are the moments that you live for and kind of makes us who we are as a team.”

Riley went 3 for 4 with two RBIs and Daudelin was 2 for 4 with an RBI and two runs scored.

The Generals (14-6) tied the game on a two-run double by Meghan Brown in the top of the sixth, setting the stage for the dramatic finish.

Daudelin roped a triple to right-center, but had to remain at third when Burke lined out hard to second base.

“Kianna’s triple set the mood,” Riley said. “That gave us a cushion.”

“It was a big hit,” Tenasco said. “We had the right people coming up at the right time just like Wednesday night. I just told (Daudelin) they’re going to pitch around you. Make sure it’s a good pitch if you’re going to swing.”

Donohue followed with a fly ball to medium left-center and Daudelin beat the throw home and avoided the tag attempt with a head-first slide to the outside part of the plate.

“I was thinking tag up the entire time,” Daudelin said. “I heard my coach tell me to go so I ran and hoped for the best. It was pretty close. I figured if I slid outside I’d get away from the ball more.”

Donohue went 1 for 3, scored once and drove in the winning run.

“I’ve been working all year for an opportunity to get an at bat like that,” she said. “I’m really kind of proud of myself for getting there.”

The Bears scored once in the first on back-to-back triples by Lauren Jones and Riley and once in the second when Foley walked, went to second on a balk, moved to third on a fielder’s choice and scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.

John Stark tied the game with two runs in the fourth and took its first lead, 3-2, in the fifth on a run-scoring single by Carly Cook.

“They had some comfort level being here,” John Stark coach Rick Sweeney said of Coe-Brown. “It’s almost like a home field for them. Even when they were warming up you could tell they knew what they were doing.”

Leading 3-2, the Generals had the momentum until Riley and Daudelin connected with one down as the Bears retook the lead.

“I think that flipped the game around,” Daudelin said. “After we did that I think we were a lot more confident at the plate.”

Coe-Brown was making its fifth appearance in a final in seven years while John Stark had never gotten that far. The Bears won the Class I title in 2010. They reached the D-II final last year, but lost to ConVal.

“I’m thankful that we lost,” Burke said, “because it drove us this whole year.”

“I think this is a big step for the program,” Daudelin said. “It means so much. Our goal the entire year was to get here and finish it this time.”